The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories
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The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Aimee Bender (Author), Jorjeana Marie (Narrator), Alex McKenna (Narrator),
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 287 ratings
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"A collection of wistful, witty stories." (Esquire)
"Hilarious, deep and a little bit dirty." (Harper's Bazaar)

A grief-stricken librarian decides to have sex with every man who enters her library. A half-mad, unbearably beautiful heiress follows a strange man home, seeking total sexual abandon: He only wants to watch game shows. A woman falls in love with a hunchback; when his deformity turns out to be a prosthesis, she leaves him. A wife whose husband has just returned from the war struggles with the heartrending question: Can she still love a man who has no lips?

Aimee Bender's stories portray a world twisted on its axis, a place of unconvention that resembles nothing so much as real life, in all its grotesque, beautiful glory. From the first line of each tale she lets us know she is telling a story, but the moral is never quite what we expect. Bender's prose is glorious: musical and colloquial, inimitable and heartrending.

Here are stories of men and women whose lives are shaped - and sometimes twisted - by the power of extraordinary desires, erotic and otherwise. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt is the debut of a major American writer.

A 1998 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Selected by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best works of fiction of 1998.

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  1. Listening Length
    4 hours and 55 minutes
  2. Author
    Aimee Bender
  3. Narrator
    Jorjeana Marie, see all
  4. Audible release date
    April 13, 2021
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B08DL4RWZ1
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 4 hours and 55 minutes
Author Aimee Bender
Narrator Jorjeana Marie, Alex McKenna, Kirby Heyborne
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date April 13, 2021
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B08DL4RWZ1
Best Sellers Rank #161,154 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#969 in Fiction Short Stories
#5,774 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#14,595 in Short Stories (Books)

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
287 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States

Verity Kang
5.0 out of 5 stars Her writing is magical realism at its finest, with stories that read like fairy tales set ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2015
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Aimee Bender’s collection of stories is both surreal and grounded, magical and deeply human. Her writing is magical realism at its finest, with stories that read like fairy tales set grittily in a familiar world. Though the plots of the stories in this collection are more than a little unusual (a woman’s boyfriend devolves into a salamander, a disguised imp and mermaid are drawn together in a high school, etcetera), they are simple and easy enough to follow if you can accept her diversions from reality. Bender’s beautiful use of language is what makes these strange stories so haunting, readable, and poignant. She writes with a voice that is vivid and sparse, poetic without becoming pretentious or try-hard. I was particularly engaged by her unique style of characterization and description. She forgoes the use of traditional markers of character description in favor of a mosaic-style method that uses the subtle, external, and unspoken in order to create striking representations of people. Bender approaches her characters from a very human angle, and it is this sense of humanity that makes her characters and thus her stories universally recognizable. People do not usually say what they mean, they are not defined by the way their hair looks or the mild adjectives that an outsider chooses for them, but instead are made up of habits, thoughts, and actions that come together to create meaning. Bender presents her characters in this way, artfully blending what is utterly human into a world that is both outlandish and familiar.
5 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars This is probably not the book for you...
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2009
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Look, most of you are not going to like this collection. I do not recommend it for you. You will probably leave it unfinished, annoyed that you spent the money on it, and slightly cynical about any of my future book recommendations. Do not read this book. Unless...

Unless you're ok with sifting through this odd collection of freakshow characters, mundane settings and surreal plots to discover prose that cuts right through you and stories that leave you aching (usually) for the protagonist and wary of the world around you. I know what you're thinking. I, too, have a pretentious dislike of the overuse of the word "surreal," but I looked it up and it means "having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream." There may not be a more fitting description for Aimee Bender. Her stories are grounded in middle, modern America: suburban, prosaic places peopled with small-minded, self-centered individuals. And then something happens: like a boyfriend devolves into an amoeba, or a girl with a hand of fire and a girl with a hand of ice become friends, or a mermaid and an imp see through each other's high school student disguises, or a pregnant woman gives birth to her (previously deceased) mother. Something that makes the surreal seem commonplace-- and more importantly, vice-versa.

This is a collection of stories about community, about relationships, about the intrigue of being both an outsider and an insider and about deciding whether or not to face and accept the truth-- however weird it may be. Bender is sweet, irreverent, uplifting and completely depressing-- often within the same story. And seriously, you're probably not going to like it.
23 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun And Surreal Short Stories
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2018
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I enjoyed most of these stories very much, but I can only recommend them to readers who like, or can at least appreciate, surreal elements. Several of the stories take strange dreamlike turns and have plots that rely on imaginary features. But the stories flow easily. I found reading this book to be fun and thought-provoking. But if you prefer stories grounded in "reality" be warned that these stories are very quirky and surreal. If you like that sort of story, read this book. That said, my favorite story in this collection is the first one, which, although odd, involves a scenario of the sort that is both symbolic and could or has actually happened to someone.
One person found this helpful
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Mrs D. AwesomePants
3.0 out of 5 stars Very cute not-quite-Stories.
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2002
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A collection of cute, but not spectacular, not-quite-stories. Bender writes a group of seemingly unrelated scenarios. Each one takes place within a couple of hours or a day or two... and each one encompasses an average of 10-15 pages - making for a light, entertaing read.
A few of the stories stand out in my mind... but the rest just blend together.
--- One story tells about a rich girl in a fancy dress that follows a man home... blah blah... it kind of dragged on.
--- One story tells of a woman's lover who biologically regresses to a single celled organism - symbolic i guess, but kind of weird.
--- A story about a woman who recieves a mysterious gift in the mail (a bowl), lacks explanation.
--- One story tells about the strange occurance with a woman giving birth... just weird.
--- The librarian story... was GREAT and funny. It made me smile.
--- The Fugue tells several different tales in one, but then they all seem to connect in an incredible way - this was my favorite... very profound and beautiful.
All in all, most of these stories were just average... but a few stood out to make it an OK read.
Some short story books i prefer:
"Smoke and Mirrors" by Neil Gaiman.
"Complete Poems & Short Stories" by Dorothy Parker.
"The New F*&@ You" edited by Eileen Myles.
"Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy" by Tim Burton.
Check out "Girl in Flammable Skirt" ... but those i recommended above as well!
6 people found this helpful
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Monique Parker
4.0 out of 5 stars Tantalizing short short fiction when you only have 15 minutes to spare
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2006
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Bender's work resembles short-short experimental and fantasy fiction--and mostly, it works, as long as you don't have other expectations; it is provocative, and sometimes bordering on erotic. Bender is original, mysterious and dark. In every story, she weaves multiple levels of consciousness and humor. There is a mystic psychology to Bender's prose; they are simple, yet complex. She depicts longing in a fresh, real voice that appeals to today's readers: Get it fast, get it easy, get it on multiple levels, make it painless, make it simple, and make it cross levels of consciousness (as if in a dream). Bender accomplishes all these things. She allows her imagination to run wild, using simple language that often tells multi-dimensional stories.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Magical
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 5, 2017
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Amazing short stories. They draw you in with well-rounded characters who seem to encapsulate the modern fairy tale. Leaves you thinking even after the last page.
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John Clark
5.0 out of 5 stars but we enjoyed the stories
Reviewed in Canada on November 10, 2015
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Turns out, this was not a do-it-your fashion book, but we enjoyed the stories.
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Philippa Mulcuck
2.0 out of 5 stars Bit disappointed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 7, 2013
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Loved the particular sadness of lemon cake but this book was a disappointment. A lot of the stories had no meaning and made no sense.
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